I'm always beside myself when I come across a pushy Sales person. Whether its expected, like a car salesman who insists on getting my contact information, or unexpected like a lady from the local gym calling me back with caller ID to see if I want to come visit the gym (I never gave her my number), it always gives me an uneasy feeling to speak with someone who is trying to sell a product rather than informing you about a product that can sell itself. Nobody likes being pushed around, so it always surprises me to find that this dinosaur approach to sales is still being used.

Thanks to the media exposing these sort of tactics, a few less companies are using them. For example, AOL was in the spotlight in 2006 because of a phone conversation where one of its customer service reps made it ridiculously difficult for a customer to cancel his account. The customer, Vincent Ferrari, must have said "cancel the account" a dozen times or more before the representative finally canceled the account. Each time Ferrari said those words, the representative would ask questions about the account or say something to try to change the Ferrari's mind. The representative even said "Is your dad there?", which was a huge slap in the face because Ferrari was 30 at the time. If you didn't hear about it, you can view Matt Lauer's coverage of the story on The Today Show here.

AOL had lost 800,000 accounts in the previous quarter (according to MSNBC) because of the rise of high-speed internet, so its customer service representatives were no-doubt feeling some pressure to try to keep accounts. But that's no excuse to treat a customer that way, and AOL apologized on behalf of the representative and released him from the company. I'm glad to see companies are being shamed for pushy approaches though. After all, a pushy sales approach isn't the best long-term investment because many customers begin to regret making a forced purchase because they either don't need the item/service or spent more money than they should have. And having regret about a purchase causes customers to direct their negative feelings towards the company, which damages customer perceptions of the company. Call me old school, but I just like the idea of a product or service that is quality enough to sell without coercion.